Corporate Australia is in complete denial about climate change, according to former fossil fuels executive and energy commentator Ian Dunlop.

Mr Dunlop, a former chairman of the Coal Association, said business should be condemning the chairman of the Prime Minister's Business Advisory Council (BAC), Maurice Newman, for claiming the Earth is cooling.

A newspaper article by Mr Newman said that governments, including the former Labor government, followed biased research "like primitive civilisations offering sacrifices to appease the gods".

In the article, published in The Australian, Mr Newman suggested global warming was a "religion rather than science", and may be a result of solar activity rather than emissions from human consumption.

Mr Newman also cited seven scientists to conclude that the next challenge was global cooling.

Mr Dunlop said not a single voice had been raised by peak business about the appointment of so-called climate change deniers to advise government.

"The appointment of Maurice Newman, Dick Warbuton and David Murray are evidence of the real problem that we have," Mr Dunlop said.

"The Government is in complete denial on this and unfortunately I believe that most of corporate Australia is in the same position.

"I would have expected that corporate leaders would be coming out and really making their voices heard, because this is the big issue that is going to affect the corporate world."

Mr Dunlop said the scientists Mr Newman quoted had been debunked.

"This has become an ideological issue because supposed conservatives don't want to believe that this is actually happening, because what it means is that we have to fundamentally change the way our business and economy operates," he said.

He said the political appointments showed appalling governance "when there are people advising government who totally refuse to even accept there is a climate change problem - let alone give objective advice".

He added the shareholder value of companies led by climate change deniers would be "seriously affected as the impact of climate change mounts".

"The more enlightened corporations around the world are seeing that we now do have a very big problem, but we also have an enormous opportunity," he said.

Newman's comments 'deeply concerning': Tim Flannery

Tim Flannery, from the Australian Climate Council, says the people he speaks to in the business community do not agree with Mr Newman, and they take the science seriously.

"It is deeply concerning that someone who supposedly represents the business community is spouting such arrant nonsense," Dr Flannery said.

"He is absolutely wrong and I can prove it, because science is on my side. That's what science does."

"The Prime Minister must surely be deeply embarrassed by the comments," he said.

"The link between business and government is far too important to be subject to rubbish like this."

Mr Dunlop does not expect to see political leadership on the issue, "because it is too hard under the adversarial system".

"We have never had in this country a serious discussion on what climate change really means, it been dumbed down by both sides of politics," he said.

"Here it is going to have to be business that leads ... it requires people at the top of the corporations to get off their backsides and start to take account of the risks that we face and the opportunities, in a genuinely objective way."